Runic Power: Blood Spec
Yep, Dancing Rune Weapon. This weapon emphasizes why Blood-spec is a great-single target killer. Please note, do not use this in a crowded area, as the Dancing Rune Weapon is pretty much permanently set on aggro and will warp to the nearest thing and start killing it. However, it’s pretty sweet – while it’s out, it’ll use anything you use. You fire a Death Coil, it fires a Death Coil. You cast Icy Touch, it casts Icy Touch. I haven’t seen it try to Death Grip yet, but I guess maybe if yours gets resisted it’ll try. Still, it’s fun for elites, because it’s basically a 2-man group – kill other stuff around you to get the full 100 runic power, summon your Dancing Rune Weapon, and go to town on the big bad nasty.
As a side note: I’ve heard a rumor that Dancing Rune Weapon will channel Army of the Dead if you cast it while the sword is out. That, frankly, sounds insanely fun. Even if its’ not effective, you gotta admit it’d be fun to watch.
You, my good sir, are awesome. I have been looking for a beginners guide to play my Death Knight. Now I can finally stop mashing buttons.
[...] Direct link to article. [...]
OMG, you just posted what I’ve been screaming in my head to noobie death knights everywhere!
Too many players never graduate from “mashing buttons” to “mashing buttons with a purpose”.
This is a must read for every new DK.
Aurdons last blog post..Death Knight Outland Gear Guide: 64-65
[...] Grinding Fishing and Cooking from 375 – 450 Stop: How to play a Death Knight Behemothdan: The Combat Rating [...]
Thank you!
Something to consider for Frost is that many times, (though not always), Howling blast is for all intents and purposes interchangable with Obliterate in their rotation. As well, in solo play, Death Strike is often used significantly more then obliterate for the self heal. Otherwise, good stuff.
Awesome post! I’m excited to try out your rotations. Thanks for adding mine!
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@Atros: I considered including that rotation, but IMO it tends to lower damage. At least, I never found Howling Blast to be doing more than a two-disease Obliterate would. It’s definitely an option to keep in mind for Frost-speccers, I’d say.
Very awesome guide. I’ve been looking for something like this because, just like your article stated, I just felt like I was mashing whatever wasn’t on a cooldown.
I’ve opted for Unholy but I’ll most likely be soloing my way to 70 so I think i’ll respec and give Blood a shot instead. Thanks again for the awesome article.
Fear.Wins last blog post..L2P – Gundrak
[...] The Stoppable Force has an amazing article on how to mash your DK buttons correctly and also goes in to why Blood is a good leveling spec. [...]
Great post, and what’s even more awesome is your DK is a female troll! (as is my Horde DK)
Mama Druids last blog post..The Best Spec for a Tank, Solo, or PvP Death Knight
Very nice guide. I will be making a death knight soon, just to experience the lore and history. More importantly, this helps me understand the mechanics of death knights to better counter them in PVP or perhaps even help them in groups.
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[...] might’ve noticed, back when I did my previous lrn2deathknight post, that all the attack rotations started off in a very similar fashion: Icy Touch, Plague Strike. [...]
[...] Stop mashing buttons and learn to kill things: TSF Teaches You How To Start Playing Your Death Knigh… will doubtless come in handy when I start playing my death knight. My problems with playing my death knight are twofold – first I have to find the time to play him instead of my other toons (not going to happen till I have at least 2 at level 80) and second I want him to be a dual gatherer which means probably a day’s worth of dull while I wander around picking pretty flowers and smashing shiny rocks. I don’t want to miss out on nodes while I’m questing. Someday I’ll get around to playing him. [...]
[...] Stop says, stop the mashing! Learn to play a DK… [...]
Great post! Totally consistent with my own observations overall.
Quick correction, because I was confused on this very point- Rune Strike activates when YOU dodge or parry an attack (like Revenge for Warriors), not when your attacks are dodged or parried (like Overpower). The niftiest thing about it (aside from the insane damage it does) is that it is off the GCD, and is used on your next melee auto attack (like Heroic Strike).
A personal preference thing, but I don’t see Death and Decay as all that good in AoE situations for DPSing in groups/soloing. Its costly to use, the damage is pretty unimpressive, and if you are a DPS in a group, it adds a lot of threat for relatively little return as well.
Use Pestilence and Blood Boil in place of Blood/Heart Strike, instead, otherwise keeping to the ability rotation you layed out above, and I’m willing to bet your DPS will be much better overall.
A quiet disagreement on your frost rotation:
If you’re going down the frost tree, Obliterate is /bad/, mmkay? (There /is/ a frost talent that makes it good again (you don’t consume diseases!) .. but I am assuming you’re not taking that one in favor of Other Stuff.)
If you’ve talented frost, then losing your diseases on the enemy absolutely cripples your Icy Touch… one of the very early frost talents gives you extra damage as long as your target has frost fever. Obliterating and then reapplying means you actually /miss/ this extra damage in every rotation, on top of having ticks where the diseases don’t apply damage.
Instead – with a deep frost build including Killing Machine and Blood of the North (two necessities, in my opinion) .. try the much more involved:
Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Blood Strike->Blood Strike->Icy Touch->Icy Touch->Icy Touch->Icy Touch->(repeat).
Toss in runic abilities if your runes are ever all on cooldown (filling in with Death Coil and Frost strike to wait on a rune keeps your damage high) and watch for the Rime procs to get in free howling blasts along with Killing Machine procs to get in guaranteed Icy Touch crits. In group fights, try the rotation:
Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Pestilence->Blood Boil->Howling BLast->Howling Blast (repeat).
Howling blast benefits dramatically from Frost Fever (doubling damage + your frost boosts /on top of that/) as well as from Killing Machine.
But obliterates just completely break the cycle and cripple your damage from Icy Touch in the rotation.
Grimm
@Grimm: Every frost leveling build I’ve ever seen, and even some that were NOT frost, took 3/3 Annihilation. I tend to operate under the assumption that everyone who bothers to take Frost as their primary tree takes Annihilation.
[...] TSF Teaches You How To Start Playing Your Death Knight [...]
[...] a quick note to add that my guide to quit randomly mashing buttons and learn to kill things with your Death Knight (or for a less-unwieldy title, the guide to lrn2deathknight) has been updated to incorporate both [...]
Thank you sir! You are a veritable senseii of button mashing, and i no longer have bruises from rolling my face on the keyboard.
Your second rotation is messed up. If you use PS, IT, IT, IT, IT then you are left with an extra Unholy rune. A better rotation would be:
PS, IT, BS, BS, HB
PS, IT, IT, IT, HB
[...] my alts, particularly, my Death Knight. She’s level 70 now, and thanks to a little post about not mashing buttons, she’s making progess rather quickly. Now my guild knows who my alts are, but I don’t [...]
I seem to go the other way in that I’ve spent most of my time as Frost spec, and although it seems counter-intuitive for anyone starting off as a Death Knight, once you have Obliterate and Frost Strike, you actually get more damage ignoring Plague Strike entirely. Using an IT-Ob-Ob-BS-DUmp runic power into Frost Strike, repeat until target is dead. You start the cycle by hitting Blood Tap, which gives you the Death Rune you need to run the first cycle.
Awesome guide, but your earlier statement about rolling a warlock if you want to roll your face over a keyboard… well it just pisses me off. Locks ftw
Well, y’know what? Welcome to my world. I play a class where the general impression of it is “lol so OP, just faceroll to victory,” and yet every day people bitch, moan, and complain about DKs that do 800 DPS in Naxx epics in a heroic.
[...] So I read over the Big Bear Butt Blogger post today entitled: An open letter to a Death Knoob. It was a fun post but really it just kind of outlined what a lot of Death Knights are going through, which is, learning how to play an integral raiding class from level 55. It can be a bit challenging if you’ve never played a taking class before, and it can be really frustrating for folks you’re running with. It helps if you’re in a good guild that’s willing to help you get the experience you need to learn the ropes. But if one of those aren’t around, getting some reading in can’t hurt. Well except for the repair bills and the noob comments, but come on, if you’ve been playing WoW long enough to have a level 55, then well you know. On that note there were some links in the comments section of the B4s post to The Stoppable Force and this author’s Death Knight guide entitled ‘Stop mashing buttons and learn to kill things‘. [...]
[...] my alts, particularly, my Death Knight. She’s level 70 now, and thanks to a little post about not mashing buttons, she’s making progess rather quickly. Now my guild knows who my alts are, but I don’t [...]